Counsels for the Church - Ellen G. White

Because of these results, many suppose that their tea or coffee is doing
them great good. But this is a mistake. Tea and coffee do not nourish the
system. Their effect is produced before there has been time for digestion and
assimilation, and what seems to be strength is only nervous excitement.
When the influence of the stimulant is gone, the unnatural force abates, and
the result is a corresponding degree of languor and debility.
The continued use of these nerve irritants is followed by headache,
wakefulness, palpitation of the heart, indigestion, trembling, and many other
evils; for they wear away the life forces. Tired nerves need rest and quiet
instead of stimulation and overwork.150 Some have backslidden and
tampered with tea and coffee. Those who break the laws of health will
become blinded in their minds and break the law of God.
The Use of Drugs
A practice that is laying the foundation of a vast amount of disease and
of even more serious evils is the free use of poisonous drugs. When attacked
by disease, many will not take the trouble to search out the cause of their
illness. Their chief anxiety is to rid themselves of pain and inconvenience.
By the use of poisonous drugs, many bring upon themselves lifelong
illness, and many lives are lost that might be saved by the use of natural
methods of healing. The poisons contained in many so-called remedies
create habits and appetites that mean ruin to both soul and body. Many of the
popular nostrums called patent medicines, and even some of the drugs
dispensed by physicians, act a part in laying the foundation of the liquor
habit, the opium habit, the morphine habit, that are so terrible a curse to
society.
Drug medication, as it is generally practiced, is a curse. Educate away
from drugs. Use them less and less, and depend more upon hygienic
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